ABSTRACT
This chapter shows how the use of medication for patients in psychotherapy and psychoanalysis can provide unique opportunities for dynamic exploration. The clinician who manages his negative counter transference about drug use will be in a good position to see a patient's need for medicine as an opportunity to further the psychotherapeutic process. Transitional phenomena are common in anxious patients and those with primitive pathology and can create opportunities for deepening analysis and encouraging a process of internalization. Medication can take on various object representations that change over time due to an evolving therapeutic process. In addition to the possibility of medication taking on different object representations, patient's attitudes toward medication can shift during critical moments in therapy. The anxious patient who struggles with separation issues and fears of loss and destruction will often make use of medication as a transitional object (TO). Transitional phenomena are frequently evident in patients who use medication.
